The National tribune., 1887-01-27
CASTING LOTS.

While from time immemorial the Latin race has
INDUCED in lotteries the disposition 70 grow rich
on the turn of a card is not by any means confined
to that race Sooner later nearly every one buys
a lottery ticket, and Joy comes with winning In
this, as in many things in life, men proud only
when success crowns their ventures. The origin OF
lotteries is by means mysterious or lowly Lot"
implies something hidden, and that which Do
known or awarded only by fortune or the act Of
God. Lot and Abraham we're seeking their for
tunes, aud when they fell out they went upon q
mountain from whence they could see all the East
and the West, and Lot chose the beautiful valley
which stretched away toward Jordan and Sodom
and GOmOrrah. He was taking his chances He
had TO draw prize blank in the lottery of life.
The deSoat1ng IRE wrapped his estates and cities
in flames aud even his wife was turned into pill
lar Of salt. That hard lot" IL was by cast
ing lots" that the eleven disciples elected tho
successor of Judas and thedmous missionaries
among the Indians, the MOsavians, in the early
days married by "a lot and so marriage still re-
mains a lottery. Augustus introduced lotteries 60
the people of Italy. About the time Of Luther the
Italian merchants disposed of their wares and
goods and ships by lot. In 1880 the republic OF
Genoa TesOrted to lotteries to maintain the Gov
ernment. and there the first lottery with regularly
numbered tickets was drawn. Francis l. adopted
the Genoese plan, and each purchaser Of q ticket
paid q small sum as tribute to the Government.
Twenty one years later lotteries for money exclu-
sively were founded, and they were conducted
under the direct control of the king. In England
the first public lottery drawn in 1863, the
profits being devoted to repairing English bar
bOrs. In 1912 lottery granted by the Crown
to the Virginia colony and in 1850 one TO supply
London with water In 1909 Parliament passed
lottery bills and kept up the practice regularly.
In October 1926, the last public lottery drawn
under Parliamentary law in Great Britain. In
Hamburg and in Cuba lotteries in full opera
ton. but none of them with the safeguards that
have been cast about The Louisiana Lottery. Tho
Continental Congress established lotteries, and the
so-caed art unions were lotteries in another guise.
EXAMPLE OF WASHINGTON.
DR.. Dauphin, the President of the Louisiana
State Lottery Company, is not only an sxcellent
and systematic business man, but an antiquarian.
especially in this special line. Among others. he
has ticket of the United States Lottery, which
drawn ct Philadelphia under a resolution Of
Congress, passed in Philadelphia on November Is,
1875. Another reads as follows:
257. LOS This ticket No. 257l shall entitle the
pOssessOr to whatever prize may happen 70 be drawn
against its number in the Mountain Road Lottery.
(Signed) GEORGE WASHINGTON.
The Father of his Country" could not tell lie
but he did Otficiate in a number of lotteries, and
Congress authorized the earlier Presidents TO draw
lotteries for the benefit of the national capital.
Among Or. Dauphin's collection is ticket Of tho
New Jersey College Lottery, drawn in l763 This